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Being back in the clubroom was exhilarating. He’d missed his friends and the wonderful energy the team got when they were all together. Jokes that had years of foundation being thrown around and new foundations being laid with the new members. They made Asahi nervous, but only because they were new people.
What really twisted Asahi’s stomach was Nishi. They were on the same team again; Nishi had been insistent on Asahi being there. So they were…good, right?
It definitely seemed so. Nishi was his usual loud self with Tanaka and the smallest first year was doing a good job of stroking his ego. He seemed himself. But there was something off. This weird tension between them that Asahi didn’t like one bit.
“Asahi!” Suga shouted in his ear. It nearly gave him a heart attack.
“W-what? I’m right here.”
“You were miles away, man. I was telling you that Daichi and I were headed to the konbini with Kiyoko.”
“Okay?”
“We’re inviting you, Asahi,” Daichi chuckled, shaking his shoulder.
“O-oh, thank you. Um, I’ll catch up with you in a bit.”
“Alright, don’t forget to lock up, then,” Suga said, tossing him the keys. Asahi caught them just in time.
“Sure thing.”
Asahi was still wrapped up in his thoughts as he gathered his things and closed the clubroom, stuffing the key in his pocket. His second heart attack of the evening was the finger that tapped his shoulder when he started down the stairs. With a strangled scream, he stumbled and gripped the railing, pressing back against it.
“Sorry!” It was Nishi. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
His hand was at his chest, trying to catch his breath. “Hi.”
Nishi smiled. “Hey.”
“Are we okay?” Asahi thought maybe the adrenaline gave him the courage to confront Nishi so bluntly. Nishi seemed just as surprised by the question.
“That’s just what I wanted to ask you, why I waited up.” He took a step closer, his height enhanced at the top of the stairs. “I wasn’t sure if we were.”
“We’re in the same team again,” Asahi said, voicing his own thoughts from before, but there was no certainty behind the words.
“Cool, yeah,” Nishi said, looking like he didn’t know how to stand, kicking at his feet. He sometimes fidgeted like that when he was nervous, like on days he had tests he didn’t feel great about or oral evaluations on his weaker subjects. Asahi remembered all the times Nishi would vent about it to him, during morning practice or on their walk home from school. He wished Nishi wouldn’t look so uncertain now. “But I was thinking more about…us.”
Oh. Us.
Asahi felt his face warm. He straightened to face Nishi, but his grip on the railing was almost painful. Their height difference wasn’t so big now, Nishi looking like he was only two inches shorter instead of ten. “I, um, kinda assumed the same?”
“Then why all this,” Nishi gestured wildly at the air between them, “tension?”
Asahi let out a breath, relieved to hear his exact thoughts. “I don’t know!”
Nishi laughed, shaking his head, getting right in Asahi’s space. Asahi’s heart quickened; it didn’t seem to matter how much he hung around Nishi, he always made his heart race. Nishi wrapped his arms around Asahi’s neck with ease, no tiptoes or cute little hops.
“Okay, so can we stop being stupid?” Nishi asked, the remnants of laughter in his voice. “We’re okay, right?”
“I want us to be, yeah.” Asahi could feel his heart beat against his chest, steady and sure. “I just—I wanted to apologize. For giving up so easily, on you, on the team. You’re worth fighting for, Yuu. And I didn’t.”
“Hey,” Nishi tilted his chin up, toward him. “I’m sorry, too. I was too mad to think. I didn’t realize that leaving the team meant…breaking up.” There it was. They’d broken up, but neither had wanted to face it. “I couldn’t separate what happened between us as teammates from…well, our relationship. That was shitty of me. I’m sorry, Asahi.”
Asahi smiled, his grip on the railing loosening, his arms pulling Nishi into a hug. “I’m sorry, too.”
Nishi chuckled and Asahi heard a small sniffle. “You already said that.”
“I wanted to say it again.”
Nishi pulled away, but only enough to kiss Asahi, holding his face in his hands.
His stomach was made of rocks and butterflies.
Something definitely short-circuited in his head. It reconnected when Nishi’s mouth began to move against his. It was warm and a little clumsy, like their first kiss, Asahi’s movements stuttering in uncertainty. It was like they were finding their footing again.
He felt Nishi smile against his lips before he tilted his head, pulling Asahi closer.
It was easy to follow Nishi’s lead, hands wandering, tongues licking, fingers tugging and digging. Asahi’s weight was buckling under his knees, Nishi’s lips making him lightheaded. There was a sudden warmth in his gut that shot downward the moment Nishi tugged at his bottom lip with his teeth. A small sound escaped Asahi’s throat.
Nishi pulled away with a playful smirk. Asahi felt his face warm.
“That good, huh?”
“Nishi.”
“No, no. I’m here to serve,” Nishi teased, giving Asahi a quick kiss on his cheek.
“Oh, God. You’re terrible.” Asahi was sure his face was completely red by now. Then Nishi looked down, much to Asahi’s horror, his grin wider than the Cheshire Cat’s.
“Well, babe, say less,” Nishi said, his tone dripping with glee. Asahi groaned, flustered beyond what he thought humanly possible, hiding his face in Nishi’s shoulder. Nishi laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll stop. We better get going anyway. The sun’s starting to go down.”
“I said I’d meet the guys at the foot of the slope.”
“Okay, then I’ll drop you off,” Nishi said as they began to walk down the stairs. “’Cause I’m a gentleman.”
Asahi smiled at that. He’d missed Nishi, his ‘grand’ gestures, his jokes, the ease that came with having him close. Asahi could never match his energy, but Nishi never expected him to. Together, they were allowed to exist just as they were.
Nishi was a human firecracker and Asahi was a quiet lake, but then again, wasn’t that the perfect place to let firecrackers loose?